A wide variety of equipment has been developed for tube-cleaning operations, and particularly for drain cleaning. Various sewer rods, snakes, drills and the like are well known in the art.
One type of tube-cleaning apparatus has a flat strip which is progressively insertable and retractible with respect to a drain tube and a grip handle slidable along such strip and engageable therewith. The grip handle is moved to different positions along the strip as the insertion or retraction progresses. Many different devices of this kind have been developed. Some of such devices are referred to as sewer rods.
Drain cleaning using sewer rods or other apparatus of the type last described is never a pleasant task. The flat strip is hard to handle because of its springiness and because of frequent difficulty of insertion into a drain. And, when the strip is withdrawn it is covered with filthy waste material which gets on the hands of the operator and elsewhere due to the wet condition of such waste and/or the springiness of the strip. The grip handles of such tube-cleaning apparatus often become covered with waste material, making continued operation a rather disgusting task.
Another problem with prior tube-cleaning apparatus of this type is that the grip handles are often difficult to manipulate. Such devices are typically made of two half handles which are pivotably interconnected to form the grip handles, and the difficulty in manipulation is due in part to the nature of the pivotable interconnections. In some cases, yokes encircle portions of such half handles, and such half handles are not readily aligned. Furthermore, such constructions typically have several pieces which make assembly difficult.
There is a need for improvements in tube-cleaning apparatus of the type described.